The BHAP (Bruce
Highway Action Plan) Program Evaluation was a momentous task conducted in most
part by the TMR (Transport and Main Roads) CBA (cost benefit analysis) team.
The evaluation included 189 overtaking lanes, 404km of road widening
and shoulder sealing in various places between Brisbane and Cairns, 56 capacity
focused projects and 16 flood immunity focused projects. The total projected
capital costs of all projects proposed as part of the BHAP amounted to over 16billion dollars.
The program evaluation conducted, due to the short timeframes, lack of
available data and strategic nature of the plan, has been “coined” a
strategic evaluation. This paper focuses on the methodology applied to the
projects proposed in the BHAP. A TMR designed project/program evaluation model
(CARP (Concise Analysis of Road Programs) V1.0) was used to
evaluate the majority of the proposed BHAP projects. The model produces streams
of discounted benefits and costs of the projects and program using limited and
incomplete data. The large scale of work and the close proximity of projects
allowed for an integrated approach to the analysis, which considered the impact
projects have on each other. The result of the program, if all evaluated
projects are included, is a BCR (benefit cost ratio) of approximately 0.71 at a discount
rate of 7%. If the less viable projects are removed from the program, the
program can obtain a benefit cost ratio of greater than 1 with a
sufficiently large number of projects remaining.